Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty
SORT (of English. Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty. " Reductions Treaty Strategic Offensive Arms ' ) is a disarmament agreement of 2002 between Russia and the United States. It restricts the nuclear arsenals to 1700-2200 operational warheads. SORT is one of a series of agreements on nuclear disarmament: The agreement is however criticized for several reasons:
- There is no verification mechanism that would allow control of disarmament steps.
- The disarmament obligation relates only to operational warheads. Stored warheads or those that are waiting, do not have to be disarmed.
- The disarmament is not necessarily as permanent, warheads can be reactivated.
- The reduction to 2,200 warheads must be implemented until the end of the contract ( 31 December 2012).
References
- SALT I (1969-1972)
- ABM Treaty (1972 )
- SALT II (1972-1979)
- INF Treaty (1987 )
- START I (1991)
- START II (1993)
- START III (New START ) (2010 )